MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian forces have taken control of the strategic coal-mining city of Toretsk in eastern Ukraine, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Friday.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report and there was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Russia calls the city, which had a pre-war population of around 30,000 people, by its Soviet-era name of Dzerzhinsk and says Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, where it is located, is now part of Russia, a claim Kyiv rejects as absurd.
Ukrainian military analysts say that capturing Toretsk, which is on high ground, could allow Russian forces to further complicate logistics for Ukrainian forces in much of the east and to advance to the northwest towards the regional logistics hub of Kostiantynivka, which links to several key cities.
Most of Toretsk’s civilian population has long since fled or been evacuated and many of the city’s buildings are pulverised or badly damaged.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Andrew Osborn/Anastasia Teterevleva; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
